Holy Trinity seniors focus on leaving volleyball legacy

Holy Trinity will look to win its sixth consecutive district championship this season.

VIERA VOICE Carl Kotala

As the only three seniors on this year’s Holy Trinity volleyball team, Lara Boos, Aly Tyson and Jenna Panarese know this is their chance to leave their mark on the Tigers’ program.

“I’m extremely motivated,” Panarese said. “I’m very excited to see what this year holds, honestly.”

Given all the new faces on the Tigers’ roster, it will certainly be interesting to see just how far they go this season. But with five straight district titles and three consecutive trips to the regional finals, one thing is for sure:

The expectations haven’t changed.

“We lost a lot last year,” Holy Trinity coach Pete Klonowski said. “We had pretty much an eight-player rotation, and five of them are no longer here. We’re having to replace a lot. But you know what? The younger players, they can step up. I think they’re capable.

“They’re doing a pretty good job. They’re learning more and more about the system and how we play. And the older ones are doing a good job of stepping up and mentoring.”

Boos and Tyson, along with junior Emily Noe, were part of that eight-player rotation the Tigers used last season. They seemed to like the way the new players were fitting in.

“Going into our team camp, a lot of new girls came and joined us, and I think a few of us were uneasy about how it would go,” Boos said. “But ending the team camp, I think we all grew as a team. We’re going to come out pretty strong this year.”

And as team leaders, the seniors will make sure this is a team that sticks together.

“We’re planning on doing a lot of team bonding this year, more than we did last year, so we can bond on and off the court as well,” Tyson said.

One big change the Tigers are making is moving Boos from the middle to the outside where she can get more swings and help the offense.

This figures to be a team that will only get stronger as the season goes along and the players get more familiar with each other.

“We’re putting in a lot of work right now,” Boos said. “And that’s going to help us come out strong at the beginning of the season. But I think as the season goes on, everybody’s going to learn a lot about each other, and with each other, and that’s going to benefit the team going into the playoffs.”

And a sixth consecutive district title would certainly be nice.

“It’s promising,” Klonowski said. ‘Our goals aren’t going to change. We’re going to work hard to win that district championship. That’s how we always want to start every campaign.”